Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort(ECLS-B) of children born in calendar year 2001, “Children’s Birth Certificates” (collection at nine months), “Parent–Guardian Interviews,” (collection at 48 months), “Direct Child Assessments,” “Early Care and Education Providers,” and “School Questionnaires” (collection at kindergarten entry).

Notes: A child is considered low-income if their (preschool-age or 2005–2006) family income is at or below 185 percent FPL, the threshold for eligibility for reduced-price lunch. The first-stage and RF (ITT) columns in Panels A and B give coefficients on a dummy for being eligible for kindergarten in 2006–2007 (elig). The IV (TOT) and OLS columns in Panels A and B give coefficients on public kindergarten attendance, in the first case instrumenting with elig using TSLS. All coefficients are from separate regressions that also include as controls dummies for state of (Wave 4) residence and month × year of (Wave 4) assessment, a linear term in month age five relative to the state kindergarten entry cutoff birth date in 2006–2007, an interaction between that linear term and elig, and all demographic and background characteristics listed in Table 1, Panel B (except the low-income dummy in Panels B and C). Regressions are weighted by longitudinal sampling weights, and standard errors (in parentheses) are clustered on state × month of birth. Sample is limited to the subset of the original estimation sample born within four months after and four months before the minimum kindergarten entry age in their Wave 4 state of residence.